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Congress on Wednesday said that the UPA government should make every effort to get Warren Anderson, the chairman and CEO of Union Carbide when the Bhopal gas tragedy took place, extradited to India.

"Congress is of the firm opinion that the extradition process should be completed and he (Anderson) should be brought back. We hope government will take it to its logical conclusion," Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters in New Delhi.

She said the Congress wanted every step to be taken to ensure that the perpetrators of the world's worst industrial disaster stand trial and people who were wronged receive justice.

Natarajan sidestepped several questions regarding charges against the then Congress government at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh for granting safe passage to Anderson.

There have been successive governments at the Centre and in the state and these questions need to be asked of them as well, the Congress spokesperson said.

Days after the gas leak, Anderson was arrested and then released on bail by the Madhya Pradesh Police on December 7, 1984.

Anderson served as Union Carbide CEO till 1986, when he retired.

Natarajan said, "It should be and it will be our endeavour to ensure that any such incident is not repeated in future. We will strain our nerves for it."

Asked whether the judgement would have any bearing on Nuclear Liability Bill's fate, she said the latter is a different thing but added, "we have to wait and see what happens".

Asked about claims of a former joint director of CBI B.R. Lall that the agency was asked not to pursue Anderson's extradition, Natarajan said there are also reports of then CBI Director (K. Vijayarama Rao) rejecting such claims.

She deflected a query on the then district magistrate of Bhopal Moti Singh's assertion that the then chief secretary of the state had called the SP and the DM to his office and told them to release the arrested Anderson, and put him in the plane waiting in the airport to go to Delhi.

"Clarity should not be lost at this point of time. Anderson got bail and left the country. He is now an accused and an absconder... It is important what can be done... today we believe the government should do all that is necessary to ensure all accused are brought to justice," she said.

Natarajan also said both the CBI and the Ministry of External Affairs had taken all efforts to seek Anderson's extradition. She responded by "no comments" when questioned should Arjun Singh be asked on why Anderson was allowed a safe passage.

While maintaining that she is "not defending anybody" and does "not want to be in a position to be seen as defending Anderson," Natarajan said it was the Supreme Court, which reduced charges from culpable homicide mentioned in the chargesheet to death due to negligence.

Asked whether the party would like to see CBI going for an appeal against the verdict, Natarajan merely said she expects that all steps are taken to ensure that the accused are brought to justice, which includes enhanced punishment to them.

She also rejected the suggestion that the party has put any censor on speaking on senior Congress leader Arjun Singh, the then Madhya Pradesh chief minister. She also refused to answer a query on whether the party is satisfied with Singhs' role after the incident.

She also declined to comment on Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's decision to set up a committee to examine the legal aspects of going for an appeal against the verdict.

"This is a serious issue and not a thing to do politics," was her refrain when asked to comment on it. "It is not proper to put any blame on the central or state governments on this issue now," she said.

Natarajan also hailed the central government's step of reconstituting a Group of Ministers (GoM) to go into the issue.

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